leadership Archives - Page 4 of 4 - The Hockey Mom Fit Life

Page 4 of 4

June 22, 2017June 22, 2017

House of Cards

Uber had been a darling of the business world for the past couple of years. When my youngest son and I along with his best friend and his mom found ourselves stranded with a couple of strangers at a seedy motel in Union City, GA at 2:00 am. The hotel shuttle dropped us off assuring us we could use our vouchers there. Upon dropping us of at the hotel, the driver collected his kickback and promptly departed. No sooner had the driver left, when the hotel clerk informed us that they did not accept Southwest’s travel vouchers. As the others in the party argued with the hotel clerk, we sat off in the corner with the kids watching as several pimps and their hoes walked in and out of the hotel. There was no way in hell that we were going to stay out of the hotel, but getting a taxi outside of the city was difficult. A businesswomen from Milwaukee, called us two Ubers and booked us hotel rooms as a hotel closer to the airport. Thank god for her and for Uber.

The past couple of months for Uber, much like that night for us, have been nothing but an unmitigated disaster culminating yesterday with the departure of Uber’s CEO. I was reading an article in the paper the other day about the state of Uber and how one blog post has brought the once might company to its knees. In her blog post, Susan Fowler described her very strange year as an employee of Uber. This blog post recounted a number of issues at the company including explicit sexual harassment, career sabotage and gender discrimination to name a few. This blog post by a former engineer ended up going viral setting off a number of earth shaking events at the company.

The lesson for bloggers is that your words matter and your voices can be heard, so use the platform wisely and judiciously. For corporate leaders, consider how your run your teams and your organizations. If your employees were to write a blog post on your leadership, what would they say? Would they recount stories similar to Susan Fowler’s? Leadership is rarely glamorous and often thankless, but when people are treated with respect and made to feel value their opinions of their leaders and organizations will reflect it. Build an organization on respect, valued employees and principled leadership and you won’t find yourself leading an organization built on a house of cards.

For further reading on the Uber debacle:

https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/how-a-single-courageous-voice-led-ubers-ceo-to-resign.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/technology/uber-workplace-culture.html

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/22/uber-cto-thuan-pham-susan-fowler-travis-kalanick

June 14, 2017June 14, 2017

Stormy morning

I woke up this morning to rolling thunder as my alarm went off. There’s nothing like lying in bed enjoying the sounds of the rain and thunder and relaxing. Unfortunately, on a Wednesday morning this beautiful combination of rest and relaxation is not possible as my office beckons. Instead, rolling thunder with my alarms on a Wednesday commute means a protracted commute.

I rushed out of bed to get ready knowing that the commute would be hellacious and that I needed to stop and get gas before getting on the turnpike. As I left my neighborhood, my tire pressure came one. The only thing worse than pumping gas in a South Florida thunderstorm is putting air in a tire during a South Florida thunderstorm. Unfortunately, it appears that I have a puncture in my right rear tire. Thank goodness for my knight in shining armor, who met me at the gas station and fixed my tire.

The rest of my commute was slow, scary and laden in rain. While the puncture in my tire could have been a poor omen for the rest of my day, it was not. Building positive relationships and analyzing the business is always invigorating. Plus, any work day that ends with a dinner at Blue Moon Seafood Company is a winner. Sometimes even a day with the roughest start can end up being one of our brightest day.

June 8, 2017June 8, 2017

Be Authentic

Who we are, how we lead, how we work, how we parent and decisions we make are all based on a frame work of morals and ethics that were ingrained with us from our youth. Sure over the years, our moral and ethical framework evolves, but the shifts are not crisp, nor are they tectonic in nature. Or are they?

nothing-is-gained-everything-is-lost-by-subordinating-principle-to-expediency-quote-1

I believe in servant leadership and have practiced it in my current role and at my previous company. My leadership style isn’t and wasn’t based upon a company or management philosophy in place, but rather based on how my moral and ethical framework interprets the role of a corporate leader. In other words, it is authentic to who I am and how I operate. My leadership style has never been a tool of expediency.

There are times in our lives, where it will be tempting to give into expediency and pivot from our ethical framework and our leadership style. Giving into the expediency may result in short term gains, but as a leader the voracity of your character will be questioned by your subordinates and those above you. Before you pivot to expedience, ask yourself if the short term gains will outweigh the longer term ramifications. How will your organization perform if they no longer have faith in you or your intentions? Is it worth the risk? I would argue all day every day that it is never worth the risk.

May 17, 2017May 17, 2017

Sitting on the Edge of the Precipice

Every day, at every stage of our life, we have a choice. Do we settle for the status quo or worse for mediocrity? Or do we strive for greatness? Often we choose to simply exist. Day in and day out we follow the same monotonous routine as the day before. Choosing to exist in relative comfort instead of pushing ourselves to greatness.

It is on that precipice, where most sit in relative safety for most of their lives. Instead of choosing growth and opportunity, we balk at the risk that jumping of the precipice represents. Afraid to fail, we sit and we stall. The fear of failure can be paralyzing, however, even the worst situation could end up being the opportunity of a lifetime. We have to accept that failure is necessary for both growth and success.

It’s not always the fear of failure that drives us to maintain the status quo. Sometimes it is us accepting that being good is good enough, but I would submit to you, in the immortal words of Jim Collins that “good is the enemy of great.” Accepting “being good” is choosing to settle for what will ultimately become mediocrity. Akin to the great sports quote “hard work beats talent; when talent doesn’t work,” these words charge us to not accept good as adequate. Instead we should always strive to be better. We should strive to be great. In order to be great, we need to say goodbye to what is comfortable and jump off the precipice and fly.